INVESTIGATING CHANGES AND FLOOD1 HAZARDS ALONG THE COURSE OF THE RIVER ECCLESBOURNE

This is a river investigation based on the River Ecclesbourne, looking at changes in fluvial variables along the course of the river, as well as investigating flood hazards and hazard perception.

The subject content is based on the following themes:  Physical Systems and Environments  Natural Hazards  Sustainable Development

Be organised, be focussed, be involved, be successful!

Read the following guidance very carefully before you begin:

 This investigation counts for 20% of your final GCSE mark.  You will do it in two stages. Part 1 will take about 4 weeks to complete, including fieldwork. You will work on it in lessons and in your own time. Part 2 is a Personal Investigation extending your fieldwork findings and will be planned in class, then carried out and written up in your own time.  You can collect information in groups but the writing up of the tasks must be done on your own.  Your unit should have a title sheet on which you must put: the title of the investigation; your name; the Centre name – Duffield, Ecclesbourne.  You must number the pages of the unit and make sure you label each task clearly.  Label each map, graph, photo, fieldsketch etc. with a figure number and incorporate them within your coursework at the appropriate place, referencing them clearly within your answers.  Remember the importance of good spelling, punctuation and grammar.  Use geographical terms correctly.  Read all the instructions very carefully. Ask if you’re not sure of anything.  Use only A4 sized paper or folded A3 paper. Do not use plastic sleeves or plastic pockets. Use a manila folder, not a ring-binder. One treasury tag to fasten your work together is better than staples or paper clips.  You are encouraged to use ICT to produce part or all of this investigation. In Part 1 you will have to use ICT to analyse data for some tasks. However, its use elsewhere is not compulsory.  You should acknowledge the secondary sources that you have used including, for example, books, maps, newspaper extracts, and websites. You should do this in an ‘Acknowledgements’ section at the end of your work. Work simply copied from secondary sources should be placed in inverted commas and you must make it clear that it has been copied.  Make sure you know when the deadline dates are. Plan your work accordingly and make full use of the class time made available to you. Do not leave everything to the last minute!  Remember that cheating in any way, especially copying from another candidate, is strictly forbidden. The penalties are severe. Make sure you complete and sign the Coursework Cover Sheet.  The word limit is 2500 words for the entire investigation. 2 Resources You will be provided resources throughout the investigation. Where appropriate, copies of the resources can also be downloaded from the school website from folder ‘GCSE Coursework’.

General:

 LEAP for River Derwent Drainage Basin  Introduction to the River Ecclesbourne and Part 1 fieldwork  Glossary of useful terms  1:25 000 Explore 259 Derby  1:50 000 Landranger 119 Buxton, Matlock, Dove Dale area  1:25 000 Pathfinder Belper  Waugh, D. (1994) ‘Wider World’ pp168-173  Bilham-Boult, A. et al. (1999) ‘People, places and themes’ pp12-22  Chapham, S. (1998) ‘Complete Geography’ pp106-109, pp114-117  Waugh, D. & Bushell, T. (2002) ‘New Key Geography for GCSE’, pp4-11, 16-17

Part 1

Section A: Where is The River Ecclesbourne?

Resources needed for Part 1 – Section A:  An Atlas.  Derwent Drainage Basin map –relief and rainfall  Derwent Drainage Basin map –drainage and settlements  River Ecclesbourne Drainage Basin map

1. Onto an outline map of the River Derwent Drainage Basin: a) name the main river courses labelled A - D; b) name the main built up areas labelled 1 - 12; This is Figure 1.

2. Onto an outline map of the River Derwent Drainage Basin: a) shade the relief of the drainage basin using the classification shown on the key; b) annotate the map to identify the relationship between the relief and rainfall pattern within the drainage basin. This is Figure 2.

3. Write a paragraph to describe the main physical and human characteristics of the River Derwent drainage basin, including the main rivers and settlements and variations in relief and rainfall patterns. (Refer to your maps using the figure numbers.)

4. The base map of the River Ecclesbourne drainage basin shows the sites that we are going to be study on the river. Use a 1:25 000 map to identify at least 5 important characteristics of the drainage basin that could influence its hydrology and annotate these in detail at the correct location on the map. Think about, for example, relief, land use and urban areas. This is Figure 3.

5. Briefly explain why the River Ecclesbourne is an appropriate example to study how the characteristics of a river change downstream. 3 (Section A word limit = 150 words)

Section B: What are the hydrological characteristics of the River Ecclesbourne and its drainage basin?

Resources needed for Part 1 – Section B:  ERA discharge data for River Ecclesbourne 2000 – 2004 (available as a spreadsheet on shared drive and school website)

You are now going to use an Excel spreadsheet to analyse the river regimes of the River Ecclesbourne using discharge data from the ERA. Remember to give your graph a figure number, fully label the axes and include a title and a key. Save the graph in a separate sheet so that you can print it off to include in your coursework.

6. Copy the spreadsheet named ‘GCSE Geography Student Data 2006’ from the ‘Geography’ folder on the ‘Shared’ drive into your own ‘My Docs’ folder.

a) Using the worksheet ‘River regimes’, draw line graphs to show the annual regime of the River Ecclesbourne 2000 – 2004 and the overall mean discharge.

b) Using the graph for the annual regime of the River Ecclesbourne, describe how the river regime differs between September – December compared to between April – July. Use some comparative data in your answer.

c) Give as many possible reasons as you can to explain the differences that you have identified between the River Ecclesbourne’s discharge during different seasons. Don’t forget to use appropriate geographical terms.

(Section B word limit = 200 words)

Section C: How and why do the characteristics of the River Ecclesbourne change downstream?

Resources needed for Part 1 – Section C:  River survey techniques sheet  River and Sediment data collection sheets (available as a spreadsheet)  Summary data collection table (available as a spreadsheet)  Digital images on the shared drive

Enquiry Questions: 7. You are going to investigate at least 3 questions through your enquiry. a) Copy down questions (i) and (ii): (i) How does the width of the River Ecclesbourne change downstream? (ii) Is there a relationship between distance downstream and velocity of the River Ecclesbourne? b) Now design at least one more enquiry question that you can investigate using your data. 4

Methods: 8. Produce a table to outline how and why you collected your river data and any problems or risks that you encountered.

What data did How did you collect Why did you collect Were there any you collect? the data? the data? problems or risks?

Results: 9. Using your data recording sheets, calculate the following variables for each site on the river: a) Calculate the width of the river and the width of the bankfull river; b) Calculate the average river depth and average bankfull depth; c) Calculate the cross-sectional area of the river’s cross profile and the bankfull cross profile; d) Calculate the average velocity of the river; e) Calculate the discharge of the river.

10. Using your sediment data, calculate the following variables for each site on the river. It is possible to use a spreadsheet for these calculations: a) mean ‘b’ value; b) mean Index of Roundness (R).

11. Enter all your results onto the ‘Summary Data Sheet’. A fully completed ‘Data Recording Sheet’ for one of your sites and the ‘Summary Data Sheet’ should be included in your write-up.

12. For two contrasting sites that you visited on the River Ecclesbourne, construct a graph to show the cross channel profile of the river at that point, using the same scale for the width and depth measurements. Plan this very carefully, since you must use the same scale for each site so that the profiles are comparable. It is possible to produce the graphs using ICT.

13. Choose one of your sites and produce a fully annotated fieldsketch for the site. Use your annotation to describe and explain the processes and landforms that are evident at the site.

14. Choose two of the variables from your ‘Summary Data Sheet’ that appeared to be related to each other (and remembering your enquiry questions). a) Construct a scatter graph to show this relationship and add a best-fit line, if appropriate. It is possible to produce the graph using ICT. b) Add annotation to your scatter graph to describe and explain the relationship that is shown by the graph. 5

Analysis: 15. The diagram below shows some of the theoretical changes that you might have expected to occur along the course of the River Ecclesbourne.

Using all of your data and results, answer your enquiry questions, describing and explaining the downstream changes that you identify and accounting for any anomalies. You could include a sketch to compare your results to the theoretical changes downstream. You may need to refer to your class notes on rivers or the textbook resources in the general resources list. Include plenty of evidence and appropriate geographical terminology and don’t forget to refer to the maps/graphs/sketches clearly in your text using their figure numbers.

Evaluation: 16. Evaluate the fieldwork techniques and the methods of analysis that you have use in Part 1 of your investigation. Think about: a) how we chose the sites for data collection; b) the data that your group collected; c) the methods that you used to collect it; d) the techniques that you have used in your analysis; e) how could you improve the methods and techniques if you repeated the investigation?; f) what other data would you like to collect?; g) Who might be interested in the results that you have produced?

(Section C word limit = approx. 700 words)

Part 2 – INDIVIDUAL INVESTIGATION EXTENSION

Resources available from your Geography teacher for Part 2

 Duffield flood plain map  ERA flood plain and flood warning maps  Derby Evening Telegraph flood articles  Development maps of Ecclesbourne Meadows  Digital images (on shared drive and school website)  ERA defences maps 6  ERA discharge and precipitation data for River Ecclesbourne 28.10.00 – 10.11.00 (available as a spreadsheet on shared drive and school website)

Investigation: How successful is flood management of the River Ecclesbourne drainage basin?

Your task is to investigate the flooding risk on the River Ecclesbourne and the local population’s perception of it.

Some of the issues that you might consider include:

 What causes flooding of the river Ecclesbourne?  Has flooding become more frequent in Duffield?  What impact did the October 2000 floods have on the local area?  What effect has flooding had on people and businesses in Duffield?  How has flooding affected the landscape in and around Duffield?  How might development on the flood plain affect flooding, for example, the development of the Hawley’s Colour Works site for the Ecclesbourne Meadows housing development?  How does the local population perceive the risk from flooding?  How has management been used to reduce the risk of flooding?

When gathering information you must do at least two of the following:

 EITHER Gather written secondary information from places such as the Derby Evening Telegraph, Environment Agency, and relevant websites, for example, www.environment- agency.gov.uk.

 OR Produce a short questionnaire and interview about 30 people living within Duffield;

 OR Produce a short questionnaire and interview at least 10 businesses within Duffield;

 OR carry out fieldwork to investigate the characteristics of the River Ecclesbourne’s flood plain, for example, changing land use on the river’s flood plain;

 OR investigate methods of flood management employed along the course of the River Ecclesbourne.

Remember:  you can collect information with other people but the writing up of the tasks must be done on your own.  You must carry out a ‘risk assessment’ before you start and discuss the results with your teacher.  Your word limit for Part 2 is 1500 words. This does not include maps, graphs, diagrams or tables of data. It does not include annotations on photos, sketches, graphs or maps.

BEFORE YOU START

You must complete a PART II PROPOSAL FORM to show: c) which issues you intend to investigate (a route to enquiry) d) primary and secondary data you intend to collect e) methods to be used, including sampling f) why you think your investigation will be useful 7 g) a risk assessment

STRUCTURING YOUR INDIVIDUAL INVESTIGATION EXTENSION

Route to Enquiry  State the questions that you intend to investigate  What are the issues behind your questions? ‘Setting the scene’ by outlining the locational and geographical context.

How was your information collected?  Don’t forget you should include both primary and secondary information and the sampling techniques you used. This can be done in the form of a table. [Remember: primary data is data that is unprocessed; secondary data is data that has already been analysed and/or interpreted]

Results  Tables, maps, graphs, etc. Try to be inventive, but make sure that all your techniques are appropriate.  Some of your information e.g. photos and maps may be used in ‘setting the scene’.

Analysis of Results  What do your results show? This is the crucial part of your investigation interpreting and explaining your results. Organise your analysis by answering the questions that you are investigating and referring to all of your data evidence.

Conclusions  What is the answer to the original investigation question – ‘How successful is flood management of the River Ecclesbourne drainage basin?’

Evaluation  What went well and what went badly?  How appropriate was your risk assessment?  What would you change if you did it again? eg data collected, methods used etc.  How valid and unbiased were the sources that you used?  What alternative conclusions can be drawn?  How could your investigation be extended?  Who might be interested in the results of your investigation?

Appendix  List the secondary sources you used.  Acknowledge any help that you received.